News

Philip Taylor has a new book out: Ageing Labour Forces: Promises and Prospects. From restructuring economies and adjusting social welfare systems, to redefining the entire concept of old age, older workers have been at the forefront of industrialized society's efforts to respond to the crisis facing social-welfare systems and the economic threats associated with population ageing. This provocative volume considers the changing status of older workers, the evolution of public policy on age and work and the behaviour of employers, in order to answer the critical question: in an ageing society, can older workers look forward to the prospect of longer working lives with choice and security and make successful transitions to retirement?

BWA was pleased to have a visiting academic with us between November and January: Mikael Stattin from Umeå University in Sweden. Mikael was here to study Australian workplace practices and public policies regarding older workers.

Philip Taylor, Libby Brooke, Margaret Steinberg, Pat Healy and Joyce Jiang attended the 3rd International Symposium on Work Ability, Hanoi, 2007. Team members presented on initial findings from our ARC Linkages project 'Redesigning Work for an Ageing Society'. Publications are forthcoming from these presentations.

Philip Taylor spoke at the Third Age Employment Network annual conference on 30 October 2007 at Merchant Taylors' Hall, London. This year the conference was called 'Good Work and Older People' and he presented findings from our ARC Linkages project 'Redesigning Work for an Ageing Society'.

BWA is pleased to announce the appointment of Professor Margaret Steinberg as an Adjunct Professor in the Faculty of Business and Enterprise at Swinburne. Margaret brings a wealth of experience to BWA, being a highly regarded researcher and social campaigner.

In other news, BWA is sorry to announce the departure of Louise Rolland, Damien Woods and Janet Pelly to Ernst and Young in Melbourne. They led our consultancy effort and will be sorely missed. We are fortunate to be retaining the services of Louise part-time.

Philip Taylor moves in to the Director position.

Members of the team attending the final meeting of the Workforce Ageing in the New Economy (WANE) project in Banff, Alberta in October 2006. This major international project was funded by the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada. More information on this project

Fieldwork is also underway in our Australian Research Council Linkages project: Redesigning Work for an Ageing Society. This project involves case study research among Australian business, applying the Finnish Workability concept.

The team has also been active, with a number invitations to speak at national and international conferences. BWA had the honour of being invited to attend the ceremony and present at the accompanying symposium for the 2006 Carl Bertelsmann Prize at the Bertelsmann Foundation in Gütersloh, Germany in October.

Philip Taylor is part of a successful consortium led by Warwick University which entered a bid under the British Economic and Social Research Council’s New Dynamics of Ageing program. This is a multi-million pound program of research funded over several years. This was one of 11 successful bids under a scheme which provides funds to establish a network which will enter a major bid to the NDA program in 2007.

BWA is pleased to announce that Dr Libby Brooke was one of three successful applicants for a VicHealth Public Health Research Fellowship worth $105K a year for five years, a total of $525K. The Fellowship was awarded following a rigorous peer review process by public health experts, including international and interstate reviewers. More information

Professor Philip Taylor recently gave keynote addresses at two major conferences. One was 'Reinventing Retirement', held at the United Nations University in Tokyo. This event was hosted by the American Association of Retired Persons and brought together scholars and policymakers from across the Asia Pacific region to discuss a range of issues, including the implications of demographic change for labour markets. The second event took place in Leipzig and was titled 'Lifelong Learning - Equal Opportunities for Older Workers'. This was organised by the German Federal Government as part of Germany's Presidency of the European Union.

Professor Philip Taylor convened a Presidential Symposium for the Gerontological Society of America 60th Annual Scientific Meeting held in November 2007 in San Francisco. It was title ‘Global labor versus working later? Older workers and the spectre of uselessness'. Seperately, he convened another symposium; 'Maintaining a new economy career: age and work in IT' More information

Philip Taylor is a fellow of the World Demographic Association and until recently was a member of the organising committee for its annual World Demographic Congress. See coverage of this here. In 2008 Swinburne is organising five sessions of ageing and work for the congress: Public Policy for an Ageing Workforce; Managing Ageing Human Capital; Redesigning Workplaces for an Ageing Society; Generational Relations and the Workplace; and Managing Labour Supply. A number of prominent international researchers will be speaking.